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Man shares his family’s roots with the community

Apryl Pilolli/Staff photographer

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By Emiko Moore, Contributing Writer 4:08 PM Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Milton Cook’s family has been firmly rooted in Warren County since the year Ohio became a state.

Cook is an eighth-generation Quaker who lives on the 142 acres of land that his family has owned since 1803 near Waynesville. Cook has a framed copy of the land deed signed by President Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, who was then Secretary of State. According to Cook, the original deed is in the National Archives in Washington, D.C.

Both of his parent’s families, the Furnas and Wilsons on his maternal side, and the Cooks on his paternal side, moved from South Carolina and settled in the wilderness area of Waynesville. One of his relative’s log cabins, the Furnas House, is now in Caesar’s Creek Pioneer Village. In the early 1800s, many Quakers, because of their anti-slavery convictions, left their homes in the south and headed to free states such as Ohio and Indiana.

But moving a family in the early 1800s was no easy task. Cook spoke of his great-great-great-great-grandparents, Robert and Hannah Furnas, who back then traveled to Waynesville by covered wagon with three children, including a 6-week-old baby. The Cook family, on his father’s side, also traveled by covered wagons.

Cook shares his rich heritage with the community. He is a board member and president of the Museum at the Friends Home. He leads tours, including ghost tours, of the Quaker Historic District in Waynesville, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Cook facilitates the meeting of the Quakers, who are commonly referred to as Friends. The White Brick Building, where generations of his families worshiped since 1811 is the oldest, regularly attended meeting house west of the Allegheny Mountains.

Across from the White Brick Building is a small cemetery where many of Cooks’ ancestors are buried with simple rock markers.

Like generations before him, Cook farms his land. He sells his organic vegetables and grass-fed beef to local farmers markets. Cook said many descendents of the Furnas, Wilson and Cook families still live in the Waynesville area today.

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